The Hands of God
by Kanthia
Summary: Because things get fractured and the healing is painful and long, but there are always those people who know how to chase the pain away. [SanZo]
1. Grounded

_The Hands of God-_

_Because some things get broken and only certain people can fix them.  
_

_

* * *

And I'd give everything  
Just to be touched once more  
By the Hands of God/_

_

* * *

Chapter the First- Grounded_

Another day, another fight. Another stunning victory of six verses hundreds. And who could blame them? It wasn't as though they had instigated it; rather it was the hordes of men and women who lay bleeding and mutilated at his feet that had caused the whole problem in the first place.

Swords that had the gall to think they could have sliced him. Clubs that dared to bring their weight down on him. All useless, for the weapons may have landed hits but never injurious (the doctor seemed to disagree with the latter part of the statement; yet the reindeer could not understand that sleeping is a better method of regaining lost blood than covering the wounds and dressing them).

"Oi! Zoro!" His captain approached behind him, unscathed as well. Exhaustion began to demand control over his body. He stood in silence without an answer for his captain. Impervious to the silence, the boy hopped and skipped and jumped over to his first mate. "Zo-ro! You sure kicked a lot of ass!" A slap on the back that was slightly stronger than a normal captain would administer. "Awesome, Zo-"  
_Pain._  
His legs fell to pieces as though their bones had been removed. He fell painfully to his knees, his hands flailing foreword to support him as his stomach retched and violently offered a rush of blood and acid for the awaiting earth. And it was like this, bowing to the setting sun, that his eyes closed and the pain let itself go.

* * *

Pain was the first thing his conscious mind was aware of. After that came the slower but equally powerful force of hunger and thirst. 

How much time had passed since he had fallen?

Instead of trying to answer impossible questions, he considered figuring out his surroundings. He was almost certainly aboard the Going Merry; lying facedown (and shirtless) in some sort of a bed. He inhaled and confirmed he was in fact in Nami's bed. Wouldn't she be pissed off? As if it wasn't bad enough that he was nearly immobile from the pain in his back, her perfume had bled into the sheets of her bed and was currently in the process of suffocating him.  
_Voices._  
"…And then Luffy whacked him on the back. He had already taken more hits than a normal person could stand." The reindeer hopped onto the bed and began to poke his naked back with an extended hoof, sending waves of pain rocketing up and down his body. He bit his lip to keep from screaming and coincidentally looking like an idiot in front of whatever audience Chopper was speaking to.  
"So, is he gonna be okay?"  
" 'Course he's gonna be okay, Usopp! I would know if he wasn't, 'cause I'm the captain."  
"…That's a new power."  
The doctor began wrapping what seemed to be very thick toilet paper around his back. "Nee. Anyways, I'll bind his spine so that the bone heals straight. But we might have to seek a specialist on the mainland if the pain gets worse."

_My spine? Specialist on the mainland?_

"Oi, Chopper." The navigator was probably already angry for losing her bed. "Don't you think that's a little overboard? No doctor would take a pirate, 'specially one with a bounty on his head like Zoro."  
"Ah, Nami-san is so wise to think ahead!"  
What he had thought to be toilet paper was in fact a bandage. Chopper tied it off, albeit clumsily considering his hooves. "Zoro's more important. Besides, even if we do get caught it's not like it'd be the first time, nai?"  
There was a group concurrence. Even Zoro had to agree that it would take more than a fractured spine to stop him from escaping a Marine base.

"Um." Chopper had run out of things to say. "That's about it."A finger attached to a rubber arm started poking him exactly where it hurt most. "Hey. Zoro. Zoro. Zo-ro. Ni-gu. Ni-gu. MEAT! I'm hun-gry!"  
"OI! STOP THAT!" Chopper had the tendency to be neurotic about keeping the captain near his patients after hearing what he did to Nami before they had come to Drum. Nami and Usopp apologetically dragged their hungry captain up to the deck in an attempt to keep him away from his injured nakama.

That left the doctor, the cook and himself.

He was faintly aware of whispering for more than just a couple of seconds. This was followed by the cook's incomparable tenor: "You want me to WHAT?"  
The doctor sighed. "But, Nami-san will have to sleep in his hammock. The hammock besides yours, for the whole time."  
"I won't."  
"Please, Sanji-kun."  
"No freakin' way."  
"I'll show Nami the pictures you take of her at night."  
"I said, no f…WHAT THE HELL?"  
"I will."  
A groan. "Man, but after doing it for every sick bastard on the Baratie you'd know what you have to put up with." The cook rarely brought up his old life, which meant what they were talking about must be of some importance to him to not do.  
"I'll give you the pictures I took of Vivi-chan changing…"  
A long pause.  
"…And how did you get those?"  
"Stole them from Luffy, nee."  
"Fine. But how long do I have to do it for?"  
"Until he's better, I guess. Maybe twice a day for two weeks. But knowing him, he'll be out training in less than half that time so you might have to do it three times a day in the second week. Just don't hurt him more, ne?"

A clop-clop-clop and a slam guaranteed that he was indeed alone with the bastard cook. He was beginning to become more and more worried about what the hell the doctor and cook had been planning, but only time would tell.

…The doctor was right about one thing. He planned to be outside the next day, injury or not. Until then, he tried to figure out how much training he was missing with each passing moment. Not like he had ever been good at math or anything.

"Oi. You sleeping?"  
He considered for a while whether or not to respond. The cook seemingly took this as a yes and ground his cigarette into the corner of the night table right beside his head, filling his nose with the perfume of noxious gas and lethal chemicals.

A moment hanging in time and space, and quite suddenly the smell of vanilla permuted the hazy afternoon air.

* * *

_ /kanthia notes-  
warai...  
I'm still working on Rafteru but needed to take a break. This fic is actually kinda old but I lost it (notes: like everything else ;;e-e) when my computer exploded/virused. Now that I look back, I think the old version kinda sucked 'cause I included Sanji-kun's point of view._

_...Just what does Sanji have lined up for our unfortunate injured Zoro that involves vanilla?  
...You can bet it'll be kinky.  
_

_ Poor Zoro._


	2. Melting in your Mouth

_ Chapter the Second- Melting in your Mouth_

_

* * *

_  
_Vanilla? What the hell is the bastard thinking?_  
His stomach growled unhappily, but even his nose knew that this was not the smell of anything edible. He had the strongest urge to turn his head over to the other side and get a better view, but unfortunately the cook had other plans.

The vanilla was, in fact, hand cream. One of Nami's exotic lotions for dealing with chaps and calluses and all those things that just prove your strength (why she desired to get rid of them, he'd never know) and made it easier to grip hilts. This became clear as the cook neared and the synthetic smell of ointment became more apparent.

The bandage removed itself as though it was made from air and slumped to the wooden floor beside Nami's bed. The sound of flint striking flint and the subsequent smell of ash confirmed that the cook had no clue that his 'patient' was still awake. After all, how many times had he made it clear that his lungs had to stay strong and even though the bastard may want to smoke near him, the cook would get his head ground into the earth if he so dared?

He was contemplating this idiocy when Sanji struck.

It was less the actual striking and more the terms of which the striking was preformed under. At that very moment, the captain of the ship had taken the responsibility of hooking an extremely large fish with a line tied to the back of the ship, causing it to rock violently. This, in turn, agitated the resting swordsman to a degree at which any normal man with a fractured spine would pass out from cracked bone rubbing against sensitive nerve endings.

There was a split second of nothing; pain hit him like a derailed train. Stars, points of light appeared in front of his eyes. Time stilled itself. The world floated into dark and red and pain, pain that was worse than anything he had ever experienced. It was Mihawk and Daz Bones all over again, a staged rerun of anguish.

And then there was Sanji.

His hands moved quickly, forcing Zoro back into the position he had been in only moments before; on his stomach with his back exposed. Cool and creamy, his fingers were ten points of light in a hell of darkness and pain. They stayed unmoving until Zoro's muscles quieted down and stopped their neurotic twitching from damaged nerve receptors. From there, the fingers spread outward until they joined as two palms, cool and smooth and creamy as their fingers if not even more.

With smooth and gentle movements that could only belong to a cook with years of experience, Zoro felt Sanji's hands begin to move to his shoulders. The cook's long fingers wrapped around the shoulder blades buried in Zoro's skin; years of tension he thought he had long since forgotten began to unwind like tangled knots soaked in oil.  
"You awake now, swordsman?" The lack of the word 'shitty' slipped past his half-conscious mind.  
"Nn. Ya."  
"You've got the worst skin of any man I've ever met."  
"Mmn? Whazzat supposta mean?"  
"Chaps. Calluses. Bruises. Fergodsake, you should have seen Chopper for half of these wounds."  
"Flesh wounds." He was really too tired to keep arguing after that, so he blocked out the sound of Sanji's voice and tried to pretend that someone else was working magic in his back. No good. He tried to figure out how many hours of training he was missing. Futility heaped upon futility.

Sanji's hands worked, plunging deeper and deeper into the exposed muscle in his back. It was heaven; it was heavenly. Stiffness and pain became nothing as the cook moved from his shoulders downwards, gently massaging and easing the cramping from only moments ago. Zoro felt strangely uneasy. He had gotten so used to the constant tension in his back that having it removed made him feel like he was within someone else's body.

No time was wasted. Sanji seemed to know the exact place where the pain was spawning from and worked into it. His fingers poked and rubbed and danced with a skilled and even pace. Impelled to a relaxation he had never known, Zoro drifted to unperturbed sleep.

And yet, in the last few moments of wake, her name passed out of his lips, a call to her lifeless corpse feeding the sweet earth. He had not known sleep this tranquil since the night her life was stolen down the stairs. He felt guilty, oh so guilty for forgetting her for even one instant.

_Kuina…_

_

* * *

_  
He awoke in the same position he had fallen asleep in with the most alien feeling of unbearable loneliness. Guiltily, he recalled the dream that had plagued him since he lost her; he could still taste her lips in his.

No. It had been different. It was less of _her_ and more of the base feeling, the want and the get. And the cook. The bastard, how dare the bastard afflict him with his presence in the last reservoir the swordsman had safe from his nakama?

The moonlight shone in through the open window, a breeze ruffled his mossy locks. If the circumstances had been any different, he would have been outside by now working off his nightmare until he was so exhausted there was nothing left to think about but sleep. Tonight he would have to let her face torment him again and again until the sun pierced his eyelids come morning.

Not that sleep would be a part of that calculation. His stomach woke up a little late compared to the rest of him but began to bitch again; screaming and crying like a child without its mother.

It was at this moment that the cook took the opportunity to waltz down the stairs like he had nothing better to do, carrying a tray (deftly balanced on one hand) with what seemed to be the dinner that Luffy forgot about.  
"Oi. You awake?"  
"Yeah." He wasn't going to make the mistake of not responding ever again, that was for sure.  
"Brought you dinner." He placed the tray on Nami's night table, which had been cleared off for said purpose. At least he wouldn't have to face the embarrassment of having his stomach interject in whatever conversation the cook hoped to make by staying and watching him as he attempted to claim his meal.  
"…Oh."

Fractured spines tend to get in the way of sitting up and enjoying a meal.

* * *

_And by the way, Kanthia doesn't own One Piece in case you were wondering. Toei and Oda-Sensei do, and 4Kids owns some kind of alternate-universe One Piece in which One Piece sucks. OP Rap! _

_/kanthia writes-_

_nyan. warai. The drabble monster is stealing Kanthia's brain ;o-o  
neeways, kanthia is -not- working on Rafteru at the moment. sorry about that. as for Sanji's newest patient, Kanthia likes to quote her brother:  
"I could see that one coming from a million miles away."  
yaoi abounds in chapter three, when kanthia botheres to write it. looks around >.> Sanji will have to confront Zoro's reawoken fear of fractured spines after a nightmare forces Zoro to realize that Kuina probably died of the same complications after falling down the stairs. Whee!_

_Kanthia really never meant to inject Kuina into the story, but she thinks it turned out better that way.  
4Kids: SHE'S IN THE HOSPITAL!111one  
Kanthia: O-x  
_


	3. Unfair Advantages

_Chapter the Third- Unfair Advantages_

It was rather…awkward.

There were a lot of things he could stand, but sitting up in a woman's bed with a man's hand supporting your back whilst being fed by the same bastard's other hand, well.

…Yup. This was on his 'Things to never do again' list for sure.

There was an embarrassed silence between them. The cook's sharp tongue had been stilled for reasons unknown, the only sound coming from the clink of porcelain on porcelain and the more or less silent sound of him chewing. The silence became more and more enveloping until he wasn't sure whether or not the cook was still breathing.

"Gochi-sousan. Thanks for the meal." His stomach had quieted down considerably. If only the cook had remembered to bring some sake, he wouldn't have to worry about sleep for a while coming, and her face would have to wait until another night.  
"Nothing doing. Chopper said no sake." Sanji was pretty good at reading his mind.

He sighed and tried to slip back under his bedsheets, doing so with pain and discomfort. Sanji's hands were forced once again on his naked chest and back to guide him down. Sleep claimed him immediately, his entire body exhausted from the base effort of sitting up.

* * *

It was her face. Never had it been her face before- it had been her voice, her body; not the sharp creases between her eyes, the harsh words from her lips, the flush on her cheeks. It was different.

He reached out for her. Her smile shone through the aqua fog, the colour of dream. He was a child again, the powerful muscle he had grown accustomed to had receded significantly. It was for that reason he had always lost.

Two thousand and two losses in his life. And he had lost two thousand and one times to her.  
"_Zo-ro…"_  
Though she tormented him every night, it was a fresh horror every time he saw her body, naked and tempting. A siren of pure memory.  
_"Zoro, help me…"_  
That was different.  
_"I can't get up! Zoro, where are you?"_  
It had never been this way before. His tiny legs began to canter over to where she lay.

…_My God._

It was night again, at the dojo. He was standing at the top of a flight of stone stairs; she lay at the bottom. A trail of blood lead to her tiny body.  
_"Kuina?"_  
"_Zoro? Is that you?"_  
He half-fell down the stairs two at a time, careful not to slip on the still-wet blood.

She lay still as silenced night. Her raven hair that had caught the moon's light (and his eyes) once below a time was matted with coagulated blood from the force of the blow; her arms and legs were twisted at odd angles. At her side lay the Wadou, the pure white sheath covered in syrum from Kuina's mangled corpse._"Zoro…I'm going to die, aren't I?"_  
"_Don't say that. You're not going to die. I won't let you."_  
"_I can't move, Zoro…help me…"  
_He reached out for her, but his fingers slipped through air.  
_"My back, Zoro, my back feels broken…"

* * *

_

He woke with the scream still half-lodged in his throat; a painful but necessary procedure. He couldn't have his nakama hear him and discover his hidden fears.

The pieces were beginning to fall together. He had just witnessed Kuina's death, her fateful trip down the stairs that claimed her forever. He felt sick. So much blood, so much pain and such a young, beautiful girl who didn't deserve it in the least.  
It wasn't fair.

The sun was beginning to rise. Reflex tried to roll him out of bed to begin the day's training, injury registered him powerless to do so. He was left alone to mull over the meaning of the nightmare from only moments ago.

It had been different than usual. She had been hurt, dying. And he was powerless to do anything to fix her. To save her life. To heal her broken back.  
…Her broken back.

…_He had broken his back._

The scream that had almost found its death came back to life.  
He was suffering from the ailment that had killed Kuina.

* * *

A cold sweat was pouring down his forehead. It couldn't- wouldn't- 

Heavy footsteps down the stairs preceded the bastard cook, who had come to check on his patient. Sanji burst into the room, Zoro freezing in his position as soon as he realized what had just happened.  
"What the hell? D'you know how early it is? Honestly, didja have a nightmare or something?"  
"Shut up."  
"Does this have something to do with Kuina?"  
"Shut _UP_!"  
"…The hell! I'm just trying to help!"  
"Go help someone else. I don't need your shitty help to—"  
The fish that Luffy had caught some twelve hours ago was in fact still alive at that precise moment and, when faced with the decision of making a leap for freedom or being served for breakfast, chose the lesser of two evils. This, of course, caused the tiny caravel to pitch violently.

Fortunately for Zoro, he was tightly bound in his bed. Chopper had been back earlier in the night and had confirmed that the sheets were tucked in as tight as possible to stop him from moving. Unfortunately for both swordsman and cook, the blonde was thrown onto the bedridden.

There was silence for a moment. Aware only of the pain of having a human thrown on top of you and not of which specific human it was, a cry escaped his lips. The pain was horrendous, suffocating, and everything else faded to a hell of pain and nothing.

Quite suddenly, his cry was stopped. His mouth was being blocked. He opened his eyes tentatively and reflexively tried to reach to his waist, for a sword, for anything. His arms wouldn't move.

With strength unnoticed in battle due to his stubborn refusal to ever dirty his hands, the cook's long arms had him pinned down to the bed to keep him from moving. Sanji's loose blue dress shirt so close to Zoro's bare chest that he could feel the material as though he was wearing it himself.

The cook's mouth was _inside_ his.

Unable to resist because of his condition, Zoro closed his eyes and tried to avert his attention to better things. Training. Fighting. Kuina. Anything. After minutes drawn to hours, Sanji let up.  
"What the hell was that for?"  
"To get you to stop screaming. And 'cause I felt like it."  
"Bastard. You trying to fuck around with me?"  
Sanji got up. "Maybe. I have the advantage, you know."

Life was unfair.


	4. Bath Time

_Chapter the Fourth- Bath Time-_

The next night Zoro had knots. New knots.  
"Idiot," Sanji said with a profound smugness, "You don't just magically get knots in your back from lying in bed. Don't think I'm not up at sunrise, shithead."  
Zoro mumbled something along the lines of "Bakayarou".  
The door swung open and closed. Usopp's heavy footsteps clanked down the stairs into the spacious room. "Sanji, Chopper wants to know when you're coming to make dinner."  
"Can't he come and ask himself?"  
"Ano…that has something to do with it. Luffy hasn't had any meat in the last four hours."  
Sanji swore colourfully. "I told him that Chopper wasn't here to be eaten…"  
"Hey, you're the one who said that he was the emergency rations."  
"I was joking!"  
"And since when does Luffy understand when someone is joking?"  
A pause. "Tell him I'll be done in twenty minutes. The shitty swordsman is having too much fun making my job harder."  
"Sure," Usopp started to leave as he spoke, "But don't you think you're having too much fun spending time with the 'shitty swordsman'?"

Silence. The door slammed shut.

Zoro laughed into the pillow. "He's right, you know. All you can do is think about the next chance you have to screw around with me."  
Sanji said nothing, fishing in his pocket for his lighter. "You think I'm doing this because I want to? I'm doing it because Nami sleeps beside me. Nothing more. You got it?"  
"Then what was…you know…the _kiss_ for?"  
"Hey. I wanted you to shut the hell up. Now would you please be quiet? Unlike you, I have something that needs to be done and I don't like it prolonged."  
A long and uneasy silence ensued as Sanji lit up, filling the air with the sweet perfume of poison and commenced his task. Zoro knew he could tell he had been out training but didn't really care. Sanji's hands were all he really cared about at the moment.

His hands.  
Fingers like tiny stars; firm, yet gentle. Sporadic movement in a planned pattern. They curled and uncurled and pressed and rolled with precise movement, the tender and intimate commanding of intricate muscle. So much unlike his own fingers, square, thick and virtually useless on his own.

The bastard began to chat to fill the silence. "Tell me about Kuina."  
"Why?"  
"Just 'cause I want to know in case you wake me up again in the middle of the night."  
A pause. "Did I wake anyone else up?"  
"Ano…no…"  
"Don't screw around. Chopper's a light sleeper. Just where were you sleeping yesterday night?"  
There was no answer and Zoro knew he had made a small victory. Or was it? It just confirmed that the cook was- though it _couldn't_ be true- sleeping right outside his room the night before. He shuddered at the thought.  
Finally, the cook spoke. "I'll answer that if you tell me about Kuina."  
"Not a fair trade. I get to ask you a question of equal…um…discomfort."  
"Fine." Under his breath, "Bakayarou."  
Zoro grinned. "Glad to know how you think of me." He thought for the perfect question and realized exactly what he wanted to ask. "So if you're a cook, how come you're so goddamn skinny?"

The bastard answered by extinguishing his cigarette at the base of Zoro's spine. "Nicotine. Suppresses my appetite." He left without bothering to retie the bandage, cursing the swordsman who knew he was lying.

* * *

"But," said Kuina, gently stroking his hair, "You're not weak anymore. You could probably beat me 'cause you're all big and strong and I'm just a girl."  
"Shut up."  
"Naturally. Now that you're so _strong_, you're forgetting about me."  
"I'm not strong, okay? I broke my back and have to have a bastard cook coddle me to make me better."  
Kuina laughed and brushed back a strand of daisy-yellow-tinged hair. "Who's a bastard?" She casually removed the fuming cigarette from her mouth and tossed it aside. "After all, you don't have a father either."

* * *

There was a cold sweat pouring down his brow when he awoke to the scrape and shift of a ship reaching land. He was wrapped tight in the sheets and didn't have to worry about more hurting, but an uncontrollable longing to see where they were took over his mind, numbing it and leaving him in half-shock for something he had taken so for granted. 

He put the two of his hands under his shoulder blades and tried without success to push himself out of bed in what should have been a ridiculously simple and easy push-up. His brain fired off anger and fear to the numb nerves that guided the touch of applied muscle to cold surface. Anorectics fear softness. Zoro feared atrophy. He turned over slowly onto his back.

The door fell open and shut and the light, self-assured footsteps of the resident female came clicking down the stairs.  
"Rise and shine, bastard."  
"I'm up, Cook-Who-Loves-Men."  
"Shut up. We need to get your hunk of meat out of the door, and you're definitely not making it harder for me today."  
"What the hell?"  
"We stopped at an island with a hot springs, and Chopper decided that it might speed up the recovery you seem so adamant about slowing down if we left you in one for a couple of hours."  
"…Not going. Not like this."  
Sanji grinned and started to pull back the sheets, revealing a very prone swordsman. "Aww, the widdle swowdsman feews so weak and scawed awound people…get used to it." He leaned in close to Zoro's face, leering and taunting with the sweet movement of his lips.  
"Nope."  
"Yes."  
"You kiss like an ashtray."  
"You kiss like a dead fish." He leaned in closer.  
"…Spiral-eye bastard."  
"Girly-earrings asswipe." Closer yet, now with his hands on Zoro's shoulders to keep the injured party from possibly injuring him.

"…Fuck. You."

Oh, he had struck some kind of chord that he would be sure to exploit if Chopper had not come in at that moment (not eaten, thank you very much) with bandages and a really weird look on his face when he saw the position of the two.  
"Um…Sanji…I...need...someonetowrapupZorosohecanbetransportedandyoulikebondagesocanyoudoitokaybye." Chopper was gone faster than meat on supplies-restock day.  
"Damn," said Zoro, "Nobody ever told me that a bondage freak would be my masseuse."  
"Shut up."


	5. Bondagery and Bathtime Fun

What? Hai, Kanthia is updating! Don't get her wrong, she's just bad at stuff like doing things involving thinking.

**Dark-Lady-Devinity** : Hells yeah, bondage is fun! Except when it's not really bondage. Then it's just bondagery. Which is fun too.

**Animegoil**: If it was in the dub, they probably would cut it out anyways. Because plot is NO FUN FOR 4KIDS! Squee!

**WolfBane2: **What do you mean? It works on Kanthia fine. Just not on many other people, who may respond with burning objects. Except that burning objects can be fun. Damnit, now Kanthia doesn't know what to say, so how about she just gets on with it already e-e

_

* * *

Chapter the Fifth- Bondagery and Bathtime Fun-_

"See," said Sanji while tying up Zoro, "Nobody ever tells Chopper things except for Usopp who doesn't know any better. So he's lived his whole life thinking bondage was when you bind people in bandages to keep them from moving or being assholes."  
"The word is 'bondagery', not 'bind', Can't-Spell-Because-He's-Too-Busy-With-His-Bondage."  
"Oh, and since when has Stupid-As-His-Swords been an expert on grammar?"  
"Since you decided to shove your face into the crew."  
Sanji tied off the bandages with a knot around Zoro's mouth, turning him into a mummy with green moss on its head and a wide chest. "But you can't talk, right?"  
"MmrrmrrI'mgonnakillyou."  
"Thought so."

Though it _was_ good to get out of that goddamn stuffy room and into the fresh air (for the second time that day, but that was the last thing Chopper needed to know at the moment) of sea-air-near-overpopulated-island. The sweet tang of sea with a hint of bodies shuffling, of perfume, of alcohol. He liked that. He needed something alcoholic quite badly after days and nights of consciousness.

Except that he was lying completely immobile on the deck of the Going Merry and five other people were considering the best way to move him. Make that four, because Luffy didn't do the considering part most of the time, he just did the doing. Which involved him trying to pick up his swordsman by the feet and/or dragging him off the ship. Which involved a lot of pain and people yelling things a tad too loud.

_Damnit_.

"…Fine," said Nami, sighing. "I'll pay him. But Zoro owes me."  
"Hai, Nami-swan is so thoughtful for hiring a mode of transportation for the horribly ugly Marimo!"  
"Oi, but who's going to-" Usopp paused. "I mean, Zoro's hurt, so there's no-one to force the labour on- who's going to carry Zoro off the ship onto the hay cart?"  
Zoro added Usopp to the List of People to Hurt When He Was Better.  
There was a rising babble, and Nami spoke up again. "Sanji-kun, you carry him. You're the only one who can."  
"Hai, Nami-swa-" He paused.  
"For Zoro's sake."  
A more dejected "Hai, Nami-swan".

* * *

"Oi. Love cook." 

Sanji turned towards Zoro, who was balancing on his shoulder. "What is it, Marimo?"

'Get your hand _off _of there, you sick spiral bastard."

* * *

They loaded Zoro carefully into the wagon, Nami sitting up front with hopes of getting a discount, Usopp and Luffy sitting atop the hay in back, Zoro stuffed inside like a package wrapped in too many layers. Chopper floated to one side of him, Sanji on his other.  
"I don't see why we have to be swimming in this filth with the moss-head," said Sanji, resisting the urge to light up and burn down the entire town.  
"Because Zoro might need help," said Chopper, "In case the cart overturns. The hay will cushion him from the bumps in the road."  
"Usopp needs more help than the Marimo," said Sanji, indicating the rising level of noise coming from outside the pile of hay. 

They got off, Sanji and Usopp carrying Zoro between the two of them, and Luffy apologizing to the driver for almost eating his horses. They got off with only a fifteen per cent discount after Nami had complained of the heat for most of the ride and that her shirt was too damn hot to be in; Luffy would pay for that later. She was currently busy buying their way into the springs with similar methods, her faithful cook and stalwart sniper waiting for her to finish the purchase of a stay in the warm waters.

Held perfectly parallel to the ground, Zoro fell asleep.

Naturally.

* * *

When he woke up, they were outside and Sanji was removing his bandages. He twisted his neck; to one side, a low and traditional building, to the other a pool of water set into stones shimmering with the effect of heat. A hot spring- Sanji- where was everyone?  
"Oi, Zoro. Can you walk well?" Sanji untied the last knot and pulled the bandage away, leaving Zoro lying useless on the ground.  
"…Yeah," he lied, because a lie was better than being weak.  
"Baka," said Sanji, "You'd be better by now if you weren't clanking around at dawn every morning."  
Zoro stood up, not without pain. "Chopper wants me sitting around all day. That's a waste of time. I got hurt because I'm weak, and so I have to get stronger. It's you who doesn't get it, bill-board."  
Sanji smiled and watched as Zoro stumbled into the spring. If it was anyone else watching, they would have no clue the man had fractured his spine a week prior- but the fact that he wasn't standing as straight as usual, his feet fell heavily and moreso than his normal plod; his body language told tales of a man in pain. 

God damn, that bastard needed to get better quickly before he really wanted to help him. "You're limping, muscle-head."  
"I'm not, Has-no-" Zoro paused. "Girly-kun."  
Oh, it was on. Sanji vaulted into the spring as soon as the old man with green hair had lowered himself in. "You're not safe from me, you know. Everyone left- they know you _like_ to be around me alone." The insult was too ineffective. Zoro could barely hear him, mumbling something incoherent and leaning back onto the side of the pool.

The water was at a perfect temperature to complement the temperature of the air; he could taste the tension melting away like it was something edible. It was almost as good as lactic acid burn- but this was different, relaxing. He was comfortable. When you were training, everything was sharp and reminded you of things you hadn't done. For the first time since memory told, Kuina was silent in his head as he sunk lower into the static water. He was goddamn _exhausted_. Except that he couldn't sleep- if she was quiet and he slept, what would he have to dream of? It wasn't fair, because she only lived when he slept.

He could feel his muscles loosening, drawing to gold, wavering like sunlight looses itself in calm water. Things were good, and would be perfect if the water wasn't being tainted by cook-pheromones.

Sanji's fingers were warmer than the surface of the water; sensitive, deep whorls working into the rough and stained hide that was Zoro's back. He was less gentle but more responsive as Zoro could only guess that he was healing and allowed for to be penetrated deeper. Now, instead of gently touching the surface, long fingers were pushing in and pushing away. Things beneath the skin were kneaded with purpose and understanding and deep compassion (or perhaps just passion).  
"…Marimo," said Sanji, "I get a question."  
"What?" Zoro thought for a moment and remembered. "You didn't answer yours."  
"I told you already."  
"Nicotine doesn't turn you into a twiggy asshole."  
"It does now. I get a question."  
"You said something about Kuina. That counts."  
"No, I want a different question and it's my turn. How come you got so pissed when I called your earrings 'girly'?"  
"…Shut up."  
"You have to answer."  
"Nicotine suppresses my appetite." His tone was mocking.  
Sanji poked something that didn't need to be touched a little too hard. "Shut up. You're no fun."  
"I don't mean to be," Zoro said, leaning backwards until his forehead touched Sanji's bare chest. He opened his mouth just enough in the slight way that lets one know the intentions of a teenager who had been through too much. "So why don't you make me shut up again?"  
Sanji took the challenge and closed the space between swollen lips. "Like the time you were screaming in pain, you little woman?"

This was much better than finding out about a bunch of girly earrings, anyways.

* * *

And now, time for the ALTERNATE ENDING SPARKLE ET CETERA! 

"…Marimo," said Sanji, "I get a question."  
"What?" Zoro thought for a moment and remembered. "You didn't answer yours."  
"I told you."  
"Shit," said Zoro, "I dropped my R. One second." He ducked under the water and came back up with no luck. "Damnit. Um, I mean...doorknob. Now I'm going to have to make do with the L Nami lent me." He paused. "Aw, shorts." Zoro shook his head. "Why am I angsting about Kuina? She's not even dead."  
"Dat's right," said Sanji, in a sort of out-of-character way. "Anyways, Zoloh, I was sayin'…it's da sugah in my suckah that makes me so skinneh."

_ /kanthia_


End file.
